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A breathtaking view on the bowels of a volcano

Scientists from the Institut Langevin and the IPGP have developed a highly innovative imaging method capable of probing the bowels of a volcano at unprecedented resolution and penetration depth. Published in the journal Communications, Earth & Environment, this work offers a unique and promising new observable for volcanology and the anticipation of eruptions.

A breathtaking view on the bowels of a volcano

© Mael Gramain - Unsplash

Publication date: 20/09/2024

Observatories, Press, Research

Related teams :
Volcanic Systems

Volcanoes are made up of a complex arrangement of fractured rocks and pockets of liquid and gas that are so heterogeneous that imaging them is dramatically complicated. Seismic tomography exploits earthquakes to probe their mechanical properties, but it requires significant seismic activity and the resolution of the images obtained is only of the order of a few kilometers. Researchers at the Institut Langevin (CNRS/ESPCI Paris – PSL University) and the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (Université Paris Cité/CNRS) have developed a new imaging method, known as passive matrix imaging, which dives into the bowels of the volcano to a depth of ten kilometers and resolves its internal plumbing with a precision of the order of a hundred meters based on seismic noise alone. These results were obtained on La Soufrière volcano in Guadeloupe. At shallow depth, this image reveals the tortuous shape of the volcano’s conduit. Beyond a 5 km-depth, they confirm the existence of a large magma storage zone and its arrangement into a network of interconnected horizontal magma lenses. Besides confirming previous conceptual models proposed in the literature, such images offer a unique viewpoint on volcanoes, capable of revolutionizing the field of volcanology.

To achieve this, the scientists, in collaboration with the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Guadeloupe (OVSG-IPGP), deployed a sparse network of geophones, which capture not only the strong tremors of earthquakes, but also the seismic noise induced by wind, ocean and human activity. This seismic noise, measured over a period of two months, has been leveraged to construct a reflection matrix, inspired by previous work by the same team on ultrasound imaging and optical microscopy, recently published in Nature Communications. This matrix is used to finely compensate for the distortions that seismic waves undergo as they pass through the volcano’s various geological structures and magma storage area. These heterogeneities are no longer an obstacle and an image of the volcano’s internal structure is obtained as if the volcano had become transparent.

a) Three-dimensional view of the volcano obtained by confocal migration of the reflection matrix. The image is totally blurred by the seismic wave distortions induced by the heterogeneities of the volcano. b) Matrix image of the volcano obtained by learning focusing laws that compensate for the heterogeneities of the volcano. Up to a 5 km-depth, the image reveals the tortuous conduit of La Soufrière. Beyond this depth, a magma storage zone is highlighted through a complex arrangement of interconnected horizontal magma lenses. © Elsa Giraudat

This passive matrix imaging technique can be applied to any volcano as long as a dense network of geophones is deployed. It opens up a vast field of applications in volcanology, providing a better understanding of the internal structure of volcanoes and the movements of magma at depth, so that volcanic eruptions can be anticipated more effectively.

Ref: E. Giraudat, A. Burtin, A. Le Ber, M. Fink, J-C. Komorowski & A. Aubry. Matrix imaging as a tool for high-resolution monitoring of deep volcanic plumbing systems with seismic noise. Commun Earth Environ 5, 509 (2024). DOI : 10.1038/s43247-024-01659-2

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